Don't even ever think about SS (SOUND SUCK) !!I was stupid and crazy to buy amp with looked on the magazine review and big name (ML,Krell,Bryston,JR,etc)

Two years ago i've owned ML 336+380s,three months later i sold and bought Krell 350MC+KPS 25s,the sound especially soundstage much better than ML but i can't still heard the music,so after read in the f... magazine review i boughtJeff rowland 9TI. This one is very good enough and i don't think about change/upgrade my amp forever !!

But after i heard the tube sound (jadis JA250),when i went back to my country last year,i felt that my system like Harman Kardon !!

Right now here i'm: I used tube amp Jadis JA250+JP200 !!Before i spent my time 80% thinking about upgrade and 20% heard music,right now 80% heard music and 20% party he..he..he..

Don't worry, i'm not trying to sell my Jadis, even not jadisbut you gotta be move to TUBE right away !!

audio999: you're really john updike, right, and just tryin' to get a rise out of us by pretending to be one of the guys who writes service manuals for hundai? and, oh yeah, i've tried to watch movies on that overwrought jadis gear you keep pushin' and COULDN'T EVEN GET A PICTURE!!! tried rollin' tubes and everything!!! no luck!!! maybe should go i back to my country and renew career writing those sayings inside going fortune cookies. -kerry

I second (or third, etc.) the vote for tubes, for music. No opinion regarding Ht.

My experience is similar to many you will read about on your post and others on this subject. I purchased a SS amp and a tube pre. Rather expensive amp, highly regarded in the press, and reputation for musicality, yet extended, powerful and "tube-like".

Then, for fun, I experimented with a $550 Antique Sound Lab tube integrated, and first thing you know it's late at night and the stereo is still on, and I never noticed the time. That never happened with the expensive SS amp. What does this have to do with pre-amp? Simple. Tried a few and purchased the Rogue 99 (4 x 6SN7 tubes), and the world is a better place.

I think you will find that if you experiment with both, using the amp of your choice, you will find tubes to be more musical, with no listener fatigue. By the way, I highly recommend the Rogue 99, but try any of the good ones, and I think you will find there are several that are excellent. Good luck!

I like tubes as well, but keep this in mind: many movies have artificial dynamics and deep bass sound effects which are not present in quality Jazz and Classical music recordings. Tubes are for music, not car crashses, automatic weapons fire and the obligatory helicopter explosion. The best compromise may be a tube preamp and ss amps.Good Listening!

Not to ingnore the invective, but for useful suggestions. The Bryston SP-1 is and excellent surround Sound unit and also VERY respectable for 2-channel. The Bryston components have great synergy when used together. The tube SS question is too metaphysical for this venue and you must use your own ears, but for HT tube is not very convenient and it does not match the Bryston well in any case.

Synergy is important, and Bryston makes a heck of a good preamp regardless of what kind of system is being installed. The Sonic Frontiers Line series are excellent in that they sound fine, or stay the hell out of the way of the music. They offer through-puts for outboard SS processors and have a pretty cool headphone jack for late night listening. Both tubes and solid state can sound great depending on the system so take your time and check things out thoroughly before you buy.One thing to consider about tubes...........If they "warm up" the sound like they're reputed to do, wouldn't that go a long way toward taming those harsh transients and excessive high frequencies that exist on sound tracks? I think Musical Fidelity was touting a product that was supposed to do that very thing. It even received a recommendation from Stereophile.Good luck!

audio999: i meant no offense toward you personally. we all have shortcomings sometimes in trying to express ourselves. the important thing is to keep learning and contributing to a'gon's base of knowledge. -kelly

Check out the Soundstage! review by Srajan Ebean on the new Bel Canto SS preamp. The interesting part is that this self-proclaimed tube-o-phile has re-thought using tubes in the preamp stage due to their inherently higher noise level potentially affecting the weak and ultra-vulnerable signal at that stage. This concept seems to make sense and may be something to consider when choosing a preamp. Of course the right thing to do is find top contenders in each format and try them against each other in your system--the answer will likely become very obvious and will be more valuable than any post you'll read here. Best of luck.

He did say say 80% movies and 20% music, right? Use a SS preamp / processor, man! Turns on immeidately, mulit-channel for easy integration, no worries about ventilation and tube life, fast dynamics for loud passages, better bass, no rolled-off highs, great for explosions and gun fights, etc.

I love my all tube gear for my 100% music setup but I wouldn't try to integrate the tube preamp into my home theatre. For one thing, you don't want to wait 30 minutes for the tubes to "open up" and sound their best. And how about the complications of matching the two "tube channels" with the rest of the channels?

For your 80/20 requirement, to me its a no-brainer. I vote for Solid-State *in this situation*.

I am switching back to an all tube system and only going to use one supplier; Audio Note. I'll start with the speakers and work backwards; currently use an Audio Note p2se amp and am considering acquiring either a Meishu int amp or a M2 preamplifier. None of the SS stuff sounds as good as the properly executed tube equipment IF mated with compatible components (part. speakers).

I recently became a ss guy and it came in a dream. A voice told me that I had been deluding myself all along. That it was time to wake up to reality and discover what music REALLY sounds like. Mr tubegroover you need to move forward and forget about your love affair with those even order harmonic distortions and come to your senses. The tube mavens have been tricking you and all those other misguided ones all along. It is time to face the music!!

I woke up in a cold sweat, jumped out of bed and ran to my listening room and found to my great relief that it was just that, a dream, or was it? :^)

Moral of the tale, listen with your own ears and make your own decision. No one can tell you on such matters.

I use an Audio Note P2SE for my main speakers and a Parasound hca 1206 for the center/rear speakers. My preamp is a McIntosh C22 and Parasound psp1500; use a passive rca switch box to switch between the two. Home theatre works just fine with the little tube amp. I don't miss any dynamics. All this talk about tubes not working for home theatre is crap. The key is to have a tube amp with a decent transformer that makes real bass. Think Audio Note.